Thuggee Cult

The Thuggee Cult was a pre-spaceflight death cult of assassins, which was secretly devoted to the Hindu death goddess, Kali. The cult was known to have numerous enclaves throughout the Inner Sphere by the thirty-first century. They became more public in their devotion to Romano and Kali Liao in thirty-first century, viewing them as avatars.

History

Origins

The Thugees were a sect originary from Terra. After settling on the Capellan Confederation worlds, they began a relationship with the House Liao, seeing their female members as avatars of Kali reborn.

Succession Wars Era

They became more public in their devotion to Romano Liao in thirty-first century, serving as her personal suicide killers.

Clan Invasion Era

The Thuggees, during the Capellan-St. Ives Civil War, were ordered by Kali Liao, to steal nerve agent canisters from the planet Wei, and use them against the St Ives Compact. These so called Black May attacks were orchestrated by her against various targets, and were mostly suicidal in nature. Though Kali had expected to kill millions, thanks to Sun-Tzu Liao's warnings, their attacks only claimed approximately 100,000 victims, and though that included at least two important St.Ives leaders, didn't help to shorten the conflict.

Word of Blake Jihad

During the Word of Blake Jihad, when Kali Liao associated with the Blakists, she personally handpicked to create a hybrid Thuggee-Manei Domini unit: the so called Warrior House White Tiger. They were sent to attack Sian at 3074. However, following orders of Kali Liao, during the battle they turned against their presumed allies of Warrior House Rakshasa, wiping them out to a man and saving Sian from the Blakists. All surviving White Tigers were interrogated and dissected by the Maskirovka agents.

The Thuggee were believed all erradicated at the end of the Jihad, but that remained unconfirmed. It was also rumored than some of their members spirited away Romano Liao's mothballed Cataphract.

Dark Age Era

The Capellan government ruthlessly suppressed the cult, attempting to wipe out, around the turn of century, but though apparently they succeeded, in fact, scattered pockets remained in the remote mountain valleys of their homeworld. As the greatgranddaughter of Kali Liao, Ki-linn Liao was worshipped as an avatar of her namesake goddess by the Thuggees and raised believing in her own godhoodafter the Blackout plunged the Inner Sphere into chaos, in 3134 they resurfaced on Wei.

On the 18 July 3148, after Operation CERBERUS, the newly retaken Federated Suns planet New Syrtis saw a nerve agent and bomb attack on Saso, the planetary capital, which saw more than 200,000 civilians killed. Later, hundreds of people in several towns near Saso were killed on their beds, with their bodies dragged out and left in the open. On August, the Fifth Crucis Lancers base was assaulted by 'mechs which appeared to be Death Commandos. However, their 'Mechs were painted black and trimmed with red, and the skull logo had the painted image of Kali. These events were attributed to the Thuggees, as the nerve agent that was used was the same as the one used in the Black May attacks.

On the 9th of October of the same year, some Thuggees commited suicide in front of the Summer palace on Forbidden City on Sian, with Ki-linn Liao, while others recorded their suicide by fire and propagated it offworld through the Confederation space, to incitate the death of the Federated Suns. A Thuggee nest outside the city was found by the Maskirovka, but empty.

Bibliography

• BattleTech: Legends (sourcebook)
• Blood Will Tell (novela)
• Era Report: 3145 (sourcebook)
• Jihad Turning Points: Sian
• Shattered Fortress (sourcebook)
• The Killing Fields (novela)